WATCH: New Zealand no longer free of coronavirus as two UK women test positive

Picture: fernando zhiminaicela/Pixabay

Picture: fernando zhiminaicela/Pixabay

Published Jun 17, 2020

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Wellington - It took just eight days for

New Zealand to lose its Covid-free status when two women who had

been given permission to leave quarantine early after arriving

from abroad tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities

said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who has enjoyed enormous

popularity for her success at ridding the country of coronavirus

infection, said the government would review what happened, but

that it was clear checks were not adequate in this case.

"Vigorous testing is now taking place across those who were

in the quarantine facility at the same time, and those who may

have had any, even the remotest chance of contact (with the

women)," Ardern said in a Facebook Live post.

New Zealand had trumpeted its achievement last week of

becoming one of the first countries in the world to eliminate

Covid-19 and return to pre-pandemic normality, lifting all

social and economic restrictions except border controls.

The country requires all people arriving from abroad to

quarantine for 14 days to avoid reintroducing the disease. The

two women aged in their 30s and 40s had travelled from Britain

to visit a dying parent in Wellington on June 7, the director

general of health said in a news conference.

Both had gone into quarantine in Auckland after landing, but

had been given special permission to leave on compassionate

grounds, even though one had symptoms which she attributed to a

pre-existing condition. They tested positive after they returned

to quarantine.

The new cases ended a 24-day streak of no new infections in

the country.

Health Minister David Clark said he was suspending all

exemptions to the quarantine rules until he had confidence in

the system.

"Compassionate exemptions should be rare and rigorous and it

appears that this case did not include the checks that we

expected to be happening. That’s not acceptable.”

One family member of the women has been isolated in

Wellington. Staff at the hotel they women lived in would be

tested. Co-passengers on their flight, staff at Auckland airport

and anyone else whom the women met would be contacted.

The cases take the total number recorded in the country to

1,506. Deaths from the disease remain at 22, among the lowest in

the developed world.

Reuters

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